Patiala, May 24 -- Rattled by disappearing buprenorphine tablets and ghost patient entries at Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics, the Punjab health department has launched a statewide physical verification drive and an online stock audit of the drug across all centres.

Earlier this month, the department filed a police complaint against one of its employees in Kapurthala after detecting missing buprenorphine tablets. A few centres were also found disbursing medicines in the names of deceased patients.

Officials suspect such fake entries were used to divert buprenorphine tablets outside the treatment programme, either through illegal sale or non-registered addicts.

Buprenorphine tablets are used in opioid substitution th...